


Child of Yesterday

by Oron_Joogor



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Additional characters to be added and shit, Eren is like 20, Eren's Point of View, I think there might be romance, Levi is confused, Levi will be grouchy, M/M, Sex maybe?, This came from a writing prompt, This story will be kind of slow, This will be slow build, What is tag?, slow burn probably
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-24
Updated: 2016-12-22
Packaged: 2018-09-01 22:16:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8640226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oron_Joogor/pseuds/Oron_Joogor
Summary: Sometimes at dusk we would see him come out from the hidden interior of his island. For years, we had no idea who he was or what he did. Nobody knew. Until that day...





	1. Cautious of the Sun

  I looked out of my windows as I stared at the barely risen sun. The shallow rays glinted, signalling that it would definitely be a day filled with sunshine. I always loved that, hence the more olive tone of my skin. I slowly got dressed, relishing the feeling of being able to go to the lake as usual. I had always lived in a sunny environment, where even in mid-winter, the kids wanted to swim, however cold it was outside. 

  I was not one of those kids, however. I wasn't keen on swimming in the lake as much as all of my friends were. My olive skin tone was a mere trick of my heritage. On the bright side, at least I didn't get sunburned as easily as everyone else. Throwing a pair of black swim trunks on and a tank top, I threw a towel over my shoulder, having a knowing sense that I wasn't going to put the towel to use. 

  When I got there, as usual, nobody roamed the sand around the lake. I was thankful to be able to have the benefit of my bodily alarm clock. I yawned, much to my dismay. My day had just started, meaning I wouldn't return home for a long while.

  The lake stretched on for several miles, and it was often sneered at if you were to say that you might try to get to the middle. The middle is what we all called the island in the middle of the lake. Some of us have tried to get to it, wasting several hours swimming to it, and being too scared to go onto the grounds. The water was deathly cold around the island, and nobody went there. Realistically, I'd say we were all scared of it. But what I'd call what we were doing was just being careful. 

  "Hey, Eren, how's it going?" I heard Erwin's voice before noticing his towel laying next to me on the soft white sand. It was cold, I wouldn't be the first to admit it, but it felt nice to watch everything. That was until the moment I got scared out of my wits by movement. Silly... movement. 

  I wasn't too convinced with my own reassurance about the movement of the bushes on the dark island in the middle of the lake. Erwin gasped. "Oh my God, Eren, did you see that? I swear to god, if you didn't see that.. I'm going insane, aren't I?" Erwin said to me. I slapped his muscular arm, finding that it hurt more than I wanted it to. I watched the bushes, surprised when they made another soft movement, then ceased movement at all. "That was a person."

  "No it wasn't, Erwin. You saw it. That was an animal stuck on the island, or something," I said, my voice seeming too shaky for Erwin to really believe me, so he eyed me suspiciously. "Trust me. I've been living here longer than you, and I've been on the island. There's nothing there. People just say there's someone to get attention." I explained this in the most orderly fashion I could, lying through most of what I was saying. My olive colored cheeks were slightly dusted with red. Erwin glared at me, and I grinned, trying to hide the fact that I was lying. Erwin sighed in annoyance, rolling his eyes as he laid down, resting his head on his towel before closing his eyes. 

* * *

  I found myself still at the lake when it was around 8:30PM, right as the sun was going down. I watched the majority of kids and my friends shuffle back home, only to leave me sitting near the shore of the lake, staring at the moon reflecting off of the dark, murky waters. 

  "Eren, you need to come home, mom is going to worry about you." I looked back and smiled slightly at my sister, who was in maroon shorts snd a black bathing suit top.  _She should cover up more,_ is what I thought when I saw the piece of clothing. I waved the black haired girl off, though. 

  "Don't worry about it, Mika. I'm twenty years old. I think I can worry about myself when it comes time. I need some time to think." I heard two sighs behind me, and I figured out that Armin was most likely there with Mikasa. So much for playing on my side, Armin. "Just make sure someone doesn't lock the door again, or leave the spare key out." I turned around to grin at Armin and Mikasa, who were practically both scowling at my meager attempt to drive them both away. 

  And away they went. I sighed softly at the peaceful night, watching the sun return to the other side of the horizon. I watched it quietly, before seeing a rustling in the trees and bushes of the island. I furrowed my eyebrows, thinking this was something like an optical illusion, but I saw someone. Someone. An actual person. Step out of the patches of bushes. The man looked to be about my age, which made me slightly happier if he managed to see me. He stuck out like a sore thumb, his pale skin illuminated by the light of the now coming moon. 

  I found myself stepping close to the water, but as soon as a ripple hit the cold liquid, the man looked up, and we made eye contact. His eyes met mine, and I could have melted. I blushed slightly, but he didn't. He straightened himself out, and watched me. The man had to be short, maybe five foot three? He wore black coverings. They would have barely been able to have been called that. I could see everything through the pieces of black cloth. The man had a very thin figure, his ribs poking out, high cheekbones accentuating his face. His black hair matched his black cloths, and the black spiralling tattoos that fled his body. But his eyes. The man's eyes seemed to captivate me the most, the blue-ish silver iris matching something described from a story book. It was magical. 

  The man was magical, and I clearly stated that, for he motioned for me to come there. It seemed slightly dangerous for me to do so. And I almost shook my head, if it weren't for the sweet look the man had on his face. The island was about half a mile out. It was a long swim, even though I knew how to swim very well. The man kept motioning for me to come to him, and I stepped knee deep into water. 

  I looked back at the street I was supposed to be on. I was stupid Eren Jaeger, but nobody would do this... well, except for me, Eren Jaeger. 

  I looked back to face silver eyes, and I waved slowly. The man, I saw, flinched and stepped behind a tree halfway. Had I did something to make him feel frightened? Most likely, but that didn't matter right then. What mattered, was getting to the island in an efficient amount of time.

  I plunged into the water quickly, wasting no time to start my half mile journey to the small island. I couldn't help but think to myself how strange the situation actually was, but I stopped thinking as soon as the cold water of the lake hit my body. 

* * *

  The man was skeptical of me up close, obviously. He held a hand made knife, and looked at me as if I had burned his whole family alive. "How do you do that?" The man's soft, but heavily accented voice scared me slightly. 

  I paused for a second, wondering what he really meant. I opened my mouth, but closed it. What would I say? 

  "Why didn't you come out into the sun?"

  My retort is pathetic.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. Three chapters of another story and a new story completely. I'm so sorry for starting multiple stories, but I'm going to focus on this one a little before going to Our Tired Days, which might wrap up because I'm beginning to not like it. My writer's block has literally been butt fucking me lately, so I'm trying to push out as much writing as I can.


	2. Age of Elements

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Waiting for the man. What is he doing? I don't know, but he's sort of strange.

  The man looked at me with a strange glint in his eyes. He still stood back several meters from me, looking my shirtless and half dripping body up and down. I smelled like lake water, and the island smelled sweet and fresh, like the man had cleaned up. He was almost completely uncovered, but he seemed to not mind. The pale man wore dark black cloth, tied around his waist, covering his backside and front. 

  The man didn't have any hair on his body except for his eyebrows, eyelashes, and the head of black hair. His body was covered in mostly something like black paint in a tribal way. "Why are you out in the night?" His accent thick voice filled the night air, and it made me just slightly confused as to why I was here this late in the night. "As I was aware, brats like you shouldn't be out this late.." The man almost had a predatory growl to his voice. It don't frighten me, so much as it did confuse me. 

  "You told me to come over here!" I whisper shouted, as if someone could hear me. Nobody could, most likely, since the island was almost a half mile away. 

  I looked at the man skeptically. He didn't move a muscle. I wasn't really sure that he was breathing anymore, but the subtle movement of his shoulders told me that he was. I backed away, and shook my head, before jumping back into the water and making the swim back. I thought this easily could have been a dream. 

* * *

  "Eren! Where have you been!" Mikasa whispered when I came into the house. Armin was asleep on the couch, and I figured mom was asleep. I had been staying with them while my apartment got repaired. I shrugged at Mikasa, making my way to my room. She followed stubbornly, and I almost rolled my eyes. I got clothes, because who wants to go to sleep smelling like a river?

  Mikasa followed me into my bathroom, and she got onto the counter. Everyone knew I was obviously gay, since I had managed to be with Armin at 15 years old. I cringed again at the memory, my shirt coming off after my shoes. 

  "Why are you wet? You look like you went swimming or something." I laughed nervously as she said this. I threw my shirt into the empty hamper, and got into the shower, stripping my shorts and throwing them in the hamper too. I didn't want her to see me completely naked. That's disgusting. She scoffed when she heard me turning on the shower. Not like I chose to ignore her. I just took cleanliness in favor of smelling like a swamp.

  "Oh shut up.." I mumbled, getting under the already hot water. She looked like she was about to blow a fuse when I looked out. I hooked the magnet on the side of the shower, so I could look at her. "I just went for a swim out to the island." 

  And cue Mikasa looking completely appalled at my actions. 

  I laughed pretty hard at that look. I would tell Armin about it later, since we shared a room, but Mikasa couldn't know. She wouldn't have let me go out to the lake anymore if she knew. Mikasa huffed, glaring at me through the small opening in the shower curtain. 

  "Look, I thought I saw something so I went to go investigate." So far, I was doing a pretty good job at not lying to Mikasa. "But I didn't really see anything. I just looked around, I guess. It was sort of dirty there. I didn't like it- the place didn't really seem to have any sense of mystery to it." And there were my lies. I did see something, someone actually, and the place was immaculately clean. Even the sand seemed clean. There was a sense of mystery. I didn't know what the man was doing or who he was. It was strange.

  Mikasa scoffed at me and I laughed a little bit, already getting hit with an empty shampoo bottle in the head. I giggled as she slammed the bathroom door, and I just kept thinking about my time in the lake that day. It was sort of strange that I found someone on the island. I'd probably tell Erwin in the morning, but it didn't matter. He'd just laugh at me anyways. 

* * *

  I woke up with a start, having gone to sleep several hours earlier. I looked at my alarm clock with an almost frightened gaze, silently thanking the world that it was only two in the morning. I sighed, and settled back down onto my mattress. My heart rate wouldn't go down, so I groped blindly to my beside table, grabbing the chilly phone on the night stand. I cringed a little bit, and turned on the screen.

  Now, mind you, I wasn't particularly used to getting notifications this late, but I had three from an unknown number, and one from Erwin. I opened Erwin's first, reading over the text on my phone.  _Call me, Eren._ it read, making me furrow my eyebrows a little.

  The next three were the most confusing. I opened them, and furrowed my eyebrows when my co-worker's texts flooded onto the screen. He was saying something about needing me to cover his shift. I flicked back to Erwin's texts, and saw that the text was about ten minutes ago. I pressed the call button, and pressed the phone to my ear. I got up, and started walking out of the room so I wouldn't disturb Armin in his sleep. "Hello, Eren," Erwin's voice rang on the other side of the phone. I smiled a little bit, just enjoying my best friend's voice.

  "You probably aren't going to believe this but.. I heard something rustling in the bushes by the island, Eren. The one in the middle of the lake. It was weird, I was out here because I needed some fresh air, and I just saw and heard the brush move. Can you believe it? I think there's animals on that island. We should-" My voice yitched as he said all of this new information to me. I couldn't process it correctly. I was almost dumbfounded. 

  "Erwin, shut up, stupid," I said quietly. By the time the words left my lips, I was already slipping on a pair of flip flops onto my feet. I grabbed my keys, and opened the door quietly, locking and closing it. "Are you still at the lake? I'm going to walk down there. I want to talk to you about something that I saw today." 

  "Yeah, I'm still here. I'll wait, though. See you. But hurry up, it's cold." 

  My mouth pressed into a thin line as I heard the end call tone sound through the speaker of my cell phone. I pushed the device into my pocket, and started the five minute walk. 

  A part of me was worried about this, the other part was excited to tell Erwin about what was going on. My limbs shook from how chilly it was outside as I hurried to the beach. I saw the figure of a six foot three inch man, and I walked up beside him. Erwin had a black hoodie on with 'Oregon Born' on the back of it, with a map of Southern Oregon on it. I nudged him a little, and he jumped.

  "Ready to hear all this shit?" I grinned as he looked down at me, and he laughed a little. He seemed nervous, but it was fine.

* * *

  It took a strangely long time for me to tell Erwin about the experience that I had, and something told me that he wasn't quite listening to me. I sighed softly, and leaned against him. I felt his strong arm wrap around me, and I closed my eyes. I already knew he wasn't listening now, but it was alright. "What are you distracted by?" I said, feeling his hand rubbing my hipbone. "Will you be okay tonight? You seem sort of off, I guess... I can stay the night if you need me to."

  Erwin nodded slightly, squeezing my hip gently. "I'm just distracted by all of the new information that I've learned tonight, I guess. Doesn't it seem kind of weird that you met that man?" I nodded, looking out towards the middle. My eyes crinkled at the side a little bit with a cringe at what happened that day. I leaned into Erwin's strong chest, sighing softly at the feeling of his comfort. It wasn't often that I would touch Erwin in a friendly intimacy, but this was a stressful night for me, and the arms snaked around my body told me that Erwin didn't exactly mind that I was leaning on him. 

  "I'll stay over at your place.. but I'm just saying, we better get some sleep. I'm staying here for tomorrow tonight to see if we can watch the middle." I could feel Erwin's whole body tense up a little at my words, and I sort of laughed. "You're being a wuss, Erwin, you don't have to come with me or anything."

  "Eren.." Erwin said to me. I looked up at him, wondering what was really so weird about doing this. The man wasn't looking at me, however, but out to the middle. I saw a strange glint in his eyes, sort of orangey in his bright blue eyes. "Just look at where I'm looking. In the middle." 

  I turned around, and my eyes almost immediately widened. There, in the middle, was the man I had met last night. He crouched down in the clean sand, and nursed a small fire with a metal grill over it. A small slab of fish rested on the grill, and he ate another part with just his bare hands. It was almost a little disgusting. Then, I realized that he didn't have the black markings on himself anymore. The man in the island looked like he'd been ripped from a storybook. 

  Erwin pushed us both down onto our chests, trying to not disturb the man. The movements we both made seemed to disturb him more, and he hid for mere moments before we caught sight of him. The black haired man stared at us, but he didn't appear to notice we were actually there. He continued to eat his meal, and it was only thirty minutes later before the fire went out on the island, and the night went quiet. The noises didn't seem normal. The regular hum of our small city, the crickets chirping, the fish sometimes splashing, owls and birds, the occasional dog barking-- none of those things were there. The night was completely silent, it was creepy. 

  "Come on, Eren.. we have to go somewhere else. I'm getting freaked out." Erwin mumbled hastily, pulling me to my feet. I reached for his hand and I nodded. I couldn't even give the middle a one last look. I could tell by the way Erwin was so stiff that he was plainly uncomfortable, so I tightened my grip on his hand gently. "You can't go back to the middle, Eren. I don't know what would happen to you." 

  Erwin seemed to think that me squeezing his hand gently meant I was saying that I would stay, and not go to the middle. However, the blond was fatally mistaken. I was trying to reassure him that everything would be completely fine. 

  However, I knew I'd be returning to the middle. Nothing could stop me from doing that. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. I'm really sorry you guys that this took so long to upload, I've sort of been going through writers block lately but yeah. I meant to upload this about a month ago but I was physically unable to finish the chapter until now. Thank you all.


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